begin to submit articles to the school newsletter, make announcements on the PA system, offer guided tours to teachers and younger students and start training the next teams, so that the entire school community becomes aware of the exciting events happening in the aquarium.


Bringing the Ocean into Schools... and 2. A Picture Book Project


Schools to the Ocean (continued)


edge or passion. We were convinced that the actual process of learning is much more important to the successful development of life-skills than simple memorization. While the kind of rote learn- ing that still prevails in many parts of the world has largely been discredited, we wanted to go a step further: to show that teachers need not even know or teach all of the facts in order to use a tool like the Seaquarium. ‘Knowing all the facts’ might even be viewed as an obstacle to success! We found the Seaquarium to be a model of open-ended learning; as teachers became more comfort- able with it they began to find more ways to promote a spirit of enquiry and personal involvement in their students. Teachers now tell us this open- endedness has been one of the key components of the improved learning taking place in their classrooms. They also feel strongly that their students are acquiring the skills to make informed decisions about complex environmental issues, and un-


erstanding that su h decisions cannot be made in isolation from social and economic realities. As a final bonus, teachers find that, by engaging so many of their previously reluctant learners, they ting their prescribed learning outcomes with less stress. How do we know the Seaquaria program is working? First,


Picture book projects have been very successful and powerful learning tools at all grade levels, because they allow students time to carefully observe, gently touch, and get to know animals and plants from their seaquarium, in a very personal and respectful way. Only after doing their own observations do they begin their research about the natural history of the creature they have chosen. They quickly realize that it’s not always easy to find answers to their questions, and that they might actually be the one to discover something that’s seldom, if ever, been seen before.


Seaquaria have clearly demonstrated the value of a focal tool or anchor that is relevant to communities – in this case the B.C. coast. But the same approach of local content, recognition of knowledge and enquiry, and active participative learning can be used with other aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems anywhere in the world, using tools that are relevant and practical within the particular en- vironment. The possibilities – and the partnerships – are endless! For example, our first overseas initiative involved trials with


Janina, a grade six student from Victoria West Elementary School, described how they conducted their project: “For this assignment we had to observe all the animals in the Vic West Seaquarium, then choose one for research and observations. After researching, you had to make a picture book for younger children, giving true facts and information, in an interesting way. I am proud of it because I think it is one of my best projects. I worked very hard and learned a lot from researching it. It also made it a fun way to teach younger kids about what I learned, and I am proud of the job I did.”


Janina chose to study and write about the California Sea Cucumber. One of her illustrations (left) and some of the


accompanying text (below, italics) helps demonstrate the power of creatures as teachers.


communities along inland waterways in Brazil as part of a CIDA- funded sustainable fisheries project (www.worldfish.org). Chilled marine aquaria were not appropriate for this location. However a combination of mapping of personal environmental spaces, local field trips, and watershed models worked well in the context of poor fishing communities on a Brazilian river, also providing opportunities for place-based, active and interactive participatory learning. The two programs operated in dramati- cally different situations—different languages and significantly different ecosystems. Nonetheless, the results were gratifying and eye opening as the Brazilian students responded to the Seaquaria approach just the same as Canadians. In both Canadian and Brazilian projects, valuing personal


“Hi! I’m a California Sea Cucumber named Zucchini…I’m the big reddish brown, long, fat thing crawling along the bottom of the tank, vacuuming up all of the waste around me for dinner…”


knowledge and enquiry of the local environment enhances self- esteem and confidence, which leads to improved learning and emotional ties to the environment. And the learning continues to go in both directions: not only have many of the lessons learned in Canada been adjusted to suit the situation in Brazil, we are also already bringing back experiences that help our local programs evolve to new levels. We believe that the networks that are thus being established will be part of the foundation for a generation of respectful, informed and pro-active global environmental ambas- sadors (NEETF, 2002). All the teachers involved in Seaquaria agree that partner- ships and community involvement have played critical roles in the program’s overall uccess. The most successful individual programs were established in schools in which everyone was involved in planning and implementation right from the start. A good example was Victoria West Elementary School in Victoria, where students, staff, administrators, parents and community facilitators worked together throughout the process.


But there is always room for improvement. We have con-


d Meanwhile, Rico, a grade seven student and one of the most reluctant learners in the same class, was at an impasse, unable to turn his observations and research into a picture book story. “I’d


ar rea mtheeer be out in the skateboard park,” he said, just before he suddenly began to write. The resulting story connected the distinguishing characteristic of “his” creature (the prominent,


students are eager to learn. Second, they are beginning to ask questions about connections in the world around them, using vocabulary like organism, habitat, predator-pry, food chains/ webs, ecosystem, decomposition and bacteria, in a knowledgeable and understandable manner. These questions are formulated in a logical, scientific manner, often with novel insights. Finally, they are finding novel ways to share their learning with both local and global communities.


The Importance of Partnerships Thanks to very active partnerships between teachers and


muscular foot of the slug-like Sea Lemon Nudibranch), with a tale about a “Skateboarding Sea Lemon Dude”. A light had switched on!


tinued to build new partnerships that create synergies between Seaquaria classroom activities and related field programs. There is now a teacher-driven effort to provide mentoring for new schools and teachers in the Seaquaria program, and to share learning, ideas, barriers and success stories. In this way, a powerful spon- taeous network has begun to emerge, and we feel confident the program will soon be self- sustaining. What are some of the concrete returns from these partner-


This particular project was especially powerful because students used their self-published books to teach others about what they had learned. In this way, the Seaquaria program also helped develop students’ leadership and reading skills. We still use these books as classroom resources, and can’t begin to count the number of adults who have read them when they are on display at public events. The most common comment is “I had no idea….”


other professionals in the community, there are now Seaquaria programs specific to elementary, middle and secondary schools.


Page 16


ships in learning? The list is long, but perhaps most importantly includes enthusiastic appreciation and respect for terrestrial, freshwater and marine organisms, their needs and stewardship care. Students begin to think about their world in a whole-eco- system way. The relationships between these same organisms and humans become clearer, and this understanding promotes an enduring ethic of respect and conservation. Along the way, teachers witness increased interest in learning; improved utiliza- tion of existing educational resources; and improved academic performance.


Acknowledgements: We gratefully acknowledge the continuing collaboration and


support of Nikki Wright, of the SeaChange Marine Conservation Society; World Fisheries Trust; WestWind SeaLab Supplies; the


www.clearingmagazine.org/online CLEARING 2010


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